Title: Evaluation of parametric laws for computing the wind speed profile in the urban boundary layer: comparison to two-dimensional building water channel data

Authors: Annalisa Di Bernardino; Armando Pelliccioni; Paolo Monti; Giovanni Leuzzi; Giorgio Querzoli

Addresses: DICEA, Sapienza University of Rome, Eudossiana 18, 00184, Italy ' INAIL-DIPIA, Fontana Candida 1, 00040, Monteporzio Catone, Roma, Italy ' DICEA, Sapienza University of Rome, Eudossiana 18, 00184, Italy ' DICEA, Sapienza University of Rome, Eudossiana 18, 00184, Italy ' Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Ambienntale e Architettura, Università di Cagliari, Marengo 3, 09123, Cagliari, Italy

Abstract: The wind flow in urban canopies depends mostly on the geometry of the roughness elements present above the surface. Given the impracticality of obtaining relationships strictly related to the governing equations, the wind-speed profile is evaluated in current practice by means of similarity laws, whose parameters are usually based on the morphometric method. This study analyses some of the empirical laws found in the literature adopted to determine the wind-speed profile above the canopy layer in neutral conditions. Their performance is tested against water-channel data simulating an idealised two-dimensional array of regular buildings of constant height.

Keywords: building; canopy layer; logarithmic law; neutral boundary layer; similarity theory; wind profile.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2018.099142

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2018 Vol.64 No.1/2/3, pp.4 - 21

Received: 13 Dec 2017
Accepted: 29 Sep 2018
Published online: 16 Apr 2019 *

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